The last time UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo (21-1 MMA, 3-0 UFC) fought in Las Vegas, some 1,800 people saw him claim the WEC’s featherweight title from Mike Brown.

Things are going to be different this time around.

“The Super Bowl is a very important championship,” Aldo said through an interpreter. “The whole world is tuned in. For me to be able to fight on that weekend is absolutely amazing.”

Aldo, of course, is scheduled to compete in the main event of next month’s UFC 156 event at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center. He faces former lightweight champ Frankie Edgar (14-3-1 MMA, 9-3-1 UFC) at the Feb. 2 event, which takes place in Sin City one day before the NFL’s annual championship celebration.

The two were originally scheduled to meet in Rio de Janeiro at this past October’s UFC 153 fight card, but the bout was canceled when Aldo was involved in a minor motorcycle accident that kept him from fighting.

Aldo said he asked the UFC to rebook that matchup because he was intent on facing Edgar, even if it meant giving up the support he certainly would have received fighting in front of his countrymen.

“Initially, I wanted UFC to maintain the fight because I really wanted to fight Frankie,” Aldo told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I would have liked it to be in Brazil because of the fan factor. Everybody rooting for us is a very important factor. But Las Vegas is going to be great. I know there’s going to be a very large fanbase, and of course I grew up watching all the boxing fights in Las Vegas. It has a special charm in it for me.”

Aldo isn’t likely to be blinded by The Strip’s bright lights. After all, since his last trip to the city, he’s co-headlined two UFC events, including 2011’s historic UFC 129 fight card, which attracted some 55,000 fans to Canada’s Rogers Center.

He’s also familiar with Edgar, as the two crossed paths in Houston, when “The Answer” was in UFC 136’s main event and Aldo played second fiddle. Of course, back then Edgar was a lightweight and did not have to worry about dropping down to 145 pounds.

“We saw him,” Aldo said. “He went to the weigh-ins very nonchalant, eating, drinking normally. We’re going to see how it pans out this time.”

When fans first started considering the potential for an Aldo-Edgar matchup, both were reigning UFC champions and the bout was deemed a superfight. Edgar’s back-to-back losses to current lightweight champ Benson Henderson have taken a little luster off the matchup, but it still looks to be a potential barnburner, not to mention the prelude to either Edgar’s new life at 145 pounds or Aldo’s potential transition to lightweight.

In the sport of MMA, where styles do indeed make fights, Aldo is excited to show that Edgar may not be as well-suited for 145 pounds as many people seem to think.

“Frankie puts a lot of pressure on the opponent,” Aldo said. “He moves about a lot. He fought at a higher category where it isn’t so explosive. In featherweight, there’s a lot of movement, a lot of explosion. Now he’s going to fight people with the same kind of training and explosion that he has.”

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